with as much or more reason from these Texts infer that God had forbidden the Jewish People to Offer any Sacrifice or Incense to keep any new Moons or Sabbaths as from the other Text to pretend that God forbids a Form of Godliness whereas indeed nothing but the Abuse of these Religious Duties is reprehended in either place and when St. Paul commands Timothy 2 Epist 3.5 for this is spoken to him to whom this Epistle was sent to turn away from such the Apostle gives him Direction what to do with such notorious Hypocrites as had the Form of Godliness but denyed the Power thereof even to cast them out of all Christian Society by the Censures of the Church and so to withdraw from them but not from the Form of Godliness which was good still and never the worse for these Mens abuse of it Turn away from such Men but not from such a Form So that this Text likewise as all the rest he hath hitherto urged if it has any respect to a Form of Prayer as this Objector insinuates is a good Argument for the Lawfulness of such a Form and will justifie us in the use thereof provided we let the Power of Godliness go along with it and on this account St. Paul commands Timothy or the Church as this Man would have it to hold fast that Form of sound Words which he had heard of him and in another place to the same purpose with this and the former he says 1 Tim. 6.3 4 5. If any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome Words even the Words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the Doctrine which is according to Godliness he is Proud knowing nothing but doting about Questions and strifes of Words whereof cometh Envy Strife Railings evil Surmisings perverse Disputings of Men of corrupt Minds and destitute of the Truth supposing that Gain is Godliness from such withdraw thy self i. e. by passing the Sentence of Excommunication upon them Now do not all three places concern Jo. Bunyan and his Party who teach otherwise and who condemn that Form of sound Words which Christ himself has taught us and St. Paul commands us to hold fast Are they not also Proud false Accusers Trayterous Heady High-minded and plainly decipher'd under the black Character the Apostle there gives of such as reject that Form of sound Words which is according to Godliness And so we have hence also gain'd another good Proof of the Lawfulness of the Common Prayer Book as being a Form of Godliness and containing a Form of sound and wholesome Words and if we joyn the Power thereof with it we may and ought to continue in the Devout use thereof and never to Teach or Practise otherwise for fear of falling under the black Character before given and more at large set down in that Chapter CHAP. VII BUT our Author having had such bad Success in the choice of his Arguments against Forms of Prayer which prove no such thing but rather the Lawfulness of them and the Vnlawfulness of their withdrawing from them for the sake of their extemporary Effusions let us in the next place see what better Arguments he advances to make good his Pretences to Pray by the Spirit and that such extemporary Prayers are commanded in the Scriptures As for his Text out of 1 Cor. 14 15 which is the chief Proof he brings it is no Proof for but against him as I have already shewn in my first Chapter and shall now farther make appear For 1st This is no Command but an Example and that of an extraordinary and miraculous Nature even by the Confession of our Adversary St. Paul's Praying with the Spirit being accompanyed with the Gift of Tongues and therefore he says ver 18. I thank God I speak with Tongues more than you all so that unless Jo Bunyan and his Party had the same miraculous Gift of Tongues which I presume they have not the Confidence to pretend to they cannot urge St. Paul 's Example for their pretences to Pray by the Spirit having it not in the same extraordinary Measure which he had They may as well pretend to Visions and Revelations which were vouchsafed to that great Apostle in an high degree he being caught up into the third Heaven and hearing there such Words as are not lawful i. e. not possible for a Man to utter 2 Cor. 12.2 3 4. They may as well say I have been caught up into Paradice as I will Pray with the Spirit in the same manner that St. Paul did But if these Words should as I think they cannot refer to the ordinary Gifts of the Spirit then we may from them deduce not only the Lawfulness but necessity also of using a Form of Prayer as I have before observ'd being so closely connected with the latter part of the first I will Sing with the Spirit and I will Sing with the Vnderstanding also Now since all Christians make use of Forms in Singing or else the Congregation can never joyn with them and when they do they may Sing with the Spirit What Reason can there be given why they may not as well Pray by the Spirit altho' they Pray according to set Forms which are before them So that this is as unlucky a Text for his purpose as the Author could possibly have lighted upon for instead of concluding against Forms of Prayer it is such a convincing Argument of the Lawfulness of them as I believe neither be nor all his Party will ever be able to Answer His next Argument is from Rom. 8.26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our Infirmities for we know not what we should Pray for as we ought but the Spirt it self maketh Intercession for us with Groanings that cannot be uttered which he sets down in the Title-Page and repeats and flourishes with several times in his Book and does thus Paraphrase upon it p. 29. Consider first the Person speaking even Paul and in his Person all the Apostles We Apostles we extraordinary Officers the wise Master Builders that have some of us been caught up into Paradice we know not what we should Pray for And p. 31. The Apostles when they were at best yea when the Holy Ghost assisted them yet then were they fain to come off with Sighs and Groans falling short of expressing their Mind but with Sighs and Groans which cannot be uttered A false and silly Paraphrase indeed for first When St. Paul says We or I we are not to understand it always as spoken of himself but he takes upon him the Person of others and sometimes such as are unregenerate even after his own Conversion as Rom. 7.8 9.14.23.25 where he says Sin wrought in me all manner of Concupiscence Sin reviv'd and I dyed I am carnal sold under Sin I see another Law in my Members warring against the Law of my Mind and bringing me into Captivity to the Law of Sin and Death with my Flesh I serve the Law of Sin All which
unknown Tongue in such a Language as a Man had never learnt and neither the Congregation nor perhaps himself understood tho he cou'd speak it for ver 14. he says If I Pray in an unknown Tongue which in the next verse he calls a Praying with the Spirit my Spirit Prayeth but my Vnderstanding is unfruitful being not able to Interpret what he said which was another extraordinary Gift of the Spirit and which he that had the Gift of Tongues sometimes wanted and therefore the Apostle intimates in this place that there may be a separation between them between Praying with the Spirit and Praying with Vnderstanding and when there is the latter is to be preferred before the former ver 19. in the Church I had rather speak five words with my Vnderstanding that by my Voice I might Teach others than Ten thousand words in an unknown Tongue i. e. in the Spirit which bestowed that Gift so that in St. Paul's Judgment Praying with the Spirit is not always to the Edification of the Church not always performed with Vnderstanding And so much my Author owns p. 58.59 This distinction was occasioned through the Corinthians not observing that it was their Duty to do what they did to the Edification of themselves and others too whereas they did it for their own Commendations so I judge for many of them having extraordinary Gifts as to speak with divers Tongues therefore they were more for those mighty Gifts than they were for the Edifying of their Brethren which was the cause that Paul wrote this Chapter to them to let them understand that tho' extraordinary Gifts were excellent yet to do what they did was more excellent for saith the Apostle If I Pray in an unknown Tongue my Spirit Prayeth but my Vnderstanding is unfruitful and also the Vnderstanding of others therefore I will Pray with the Spirit and I will Pray with the Vnderstanding also but as I observ'd in the beginning of this Chapter he stops short here without adding which I shall therefore add I will Sing with the Spirit and I will Sing with the Vnderstanding also the plain meaning of which Phrase is this viz. that in the Apostles Days some were enabled by a miraculous Gift of the Spirit not only to Pray in an unknown Tongue but also to Sing in an unknown Psalm or Hymn as appears farther from ver 26. When ye come together every one of you hath a Psalm hath a Tongue c. both these were extraordinary and miraculous Gifts by the Confession of our Adversary and he may as well pretend to Sing as Pray extempore from this Text of Scripture but unless he can Sing and Pray in an unknown Tongue he doth not Sing and Pray as St. Paul and the Corinthians did and if notwithstanding this devout Christians may Compose Spiritual Songs and Hymns and Sing them according to the Rules of Musical Notes and yet all that while be assisted by the Spirit so may they also Compose Prayers and Praises before-hand and read them in the Congregation who are to join with them therein and yet all that time be assisted by the same Spirit for Praying and Singing with the Spirit are expressed as * Discourse of extempore Prayer p. 13. Dr. Taylor observes in the same Place in the same manner to the same end and I know no Reason why there should be differing Senses put upon them to serve purposes CHAP. II. HAving clear'd the Scope and Meaning of this mangled divided and abused Text and detected the Authors Pride in Sainting himself and his own Party and his Diabolical Slanders in making Devils Incarnate of us I shall next consider the malicious Reflections he casts on our Churches Liturgy in the Prosecution of his Discourse Page 11. he says Our Common Prayer Book is taken out of the Papistical Mass Book being the Scraps and Devices of some Popes some Friars and I wot not what and this he repeats Page 29. Paul and his Companions were as able to have made a Common Prayer Book as any Pope or Prelate in the Church of Rome and could as well have made a Common Prayer Book as those who first Composed this c. But I have these things to offer to shew the Falseness and Senselessness of such Suggestions 1st That our Common Prayer Book was not Compiled by any Pope or Prelate of Rome but by some Reformed Protestant Divines who suffer'd Martyrdom for the Protestant Religion Sealing it with their Blood and how can that savour of Popery that was the joint and unanimous Work of Protestant Martyrs who without doubt were assisted therein with the same Holy Spirit that enabled them to resist unto Blood and one of them * See Fox's Martyrol p. 1524. They with weeping Eyes Prayed together and Kissed one another and he gave unto her a Book of the Church Service set out by K. Edward which in the time of his Imprisonment he daily used Doctor Rowland Taylor made use of the Common Prayer Book when he lay in Prison and a little before his Martyrdom commended it to his Wife as the last Token of his Love 2d If it were true that the Common Prayer Book were taken out of the Mass that is no Proof of its Unlawfulness if there be nothing else Sinful in it the Papists using some such Prayers as we do does not render them Unlawful They use to anoint Sick and Dying Persons with Oyl and so do the Anabaptists and when urg'd with this that theirs is a Popish Practice their Answer is that 't is never the worse for all that if it be according to the Word of God and may not we return the same Answer That our Prayers are never the worse tho' some of them shou'd be found yet in another Language in the Mass Book so long as they are agrâ—â—able to the Holy Scriptures and pursuant to those excellent Forms Recorded there 3dly The Papists are so far from likeing and favouring the Common Prayer that the first thing they did after Queen Mary ascended the Throne was to abolish and cast it out of the Church which they would never have done if they had thought it conducing to the advancement of their Cause but they knew it was the best Defence and Buswark we have against Popery and therefore demolished and took it away and so did the Dissenters again in the Cromwellian Days and we may on their own grounds conclude them to be Popishly affected because they shewed the same Enmity and Spight to the Common Prayer Book and with disdain laid it aside as the Papists had done before and if these Men are never the worse for doing the same things the Papists did Why is our Common Prayer Book the worse for having some things in it which the Mass Book has Especially if it be consider'd that all their Prayers are in Latin which 〈◊〉 a Language unknown to the common People all our Prayers are in English which is our Mother Tongue and understood by
the Vulgar most of their Prayers are presented to the Virgin Mary and to other Saints and Angels all our Prayers are offer'd up to God through the Mediation of Jesus Christ and with how many and to say no worse burdensome Ceremonies Baptism and the Lords Supper is Administred among them And with how few and Significant ones those Sacraments are Celebrated by us all which make a vast Difference between the Common Prayer and Mass Book any one will easily find that has leisure and opportunity to Compare them both together 4ly How does J. Bunyan know that St. Paul never composed a Form of Prayer The sound Words he commands Timothy to hold fast 2 Tim. 1.13 might for ought he can prove to the contrary be such a Form himself allows the Form of Godliness which the same Apostle speaks of 2 Tim. 3.5 to have respect to a Form of Prayer as I shall shew hereafter and is there not as good reason that this Form of sound Words should likewise regard Prayer And if it does we may thence infer that St. Paul made such a Form for the Church and commanded Timothy to hold fast the same by using it therein however this be we may be sure St. Paul used a Form of Prayer himself even that of Christ's own composing Luke 11.2 when ye pray say our Father c. and he taught others to use it also or else he could not have kept a Conscience void of Offence towards God and towards Man neither would he have declared unto his People the whole Council of God as he protests he had done Acts 20.27 and Chap. 24.16 and if St. Paul and the rest of the Apostles used no other Form of Prayer it was because they were assisted by the immediate inspiration of the Holy Ghost and had miraculous Gifts bestowed upon them such as the gift of Tongues of Prophesie of Healing c. and so did not stand in need of it and let John Bunyan and his Party prove they have the like wonderful Gifts and can work the like stupendious Miracles and they shall be dispensed with in the use of the Common Prayer Book but if none of those extraordinary Gifts and Miracles can be truly pretended to by them then I think they need the help of such a Form of sound Words as well as we and this has been the constant Judgment of the Church of God in all Ages since those Miracles ceased and therefore did she at first establish Liturgies and has always used them if not in at least ever since the Apostles Days Page 31 our Author is very witty and says But here the wise Men of our Days are so well skill'd as that they have both the Matter and Manner of their Prayers at their Fingers end setting such a Prayer for such a Day and that twenty Years before it comes one for Christmas another for Easter and six Days after that they have also bounded how many Syllables must be said in every one of them at their publick Exercises for each Saints Day also they have them ready for the Generations yet unborn to say All this which is meer Banter must pass for an invincible Argument to overthrow our whole Liturgy at once and every Collect therein but such as it is we will examine it and shew the absurdity and folly of it 1st This Man does not shew his wisdom in pretending we make Prayers for certain Days twenty Years before they come since those very Days happen all within the compass of One Year and therefore there cannot be the distance of twenty Years between them and the making such particular Prayers and if it be said that these Prayers are repeated for more than twenty Years one after another we may answer there is good reason for it that as often as such solemn times return we should suit our publick Prayers and Praises according to such solemn Occasions having the Example of God himself and his Servant Moses to justifie our Practice for by the Divine appointment the Priests under the Law were confin'd to a Form of Words in blessing the People which they were always to pronounce when they dismissed the Assembly Numb 6.22 23 24 25 26. the Lord spake unto Moses saying speak unto Aaron and his Sons saying on this wise ye shall bless the Children of Israel saying unto them the Lord bless thee and keep thee the Lord make his Face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee the Lord lift up his Countenance upon thee and give thee Peace in which one Blessing wherein the name of Jehovah or Lord is thrice repeated we are taught the great mystery of our Christian Faith even the Trinity in Vnity or the three Persons and one God it being the peculiar property of God the Father to bless and keep us of God the Son to be gracious unto us and of God the Holy Ghost to give us Peace as * See his Com. on Num. pag. 109. Dr. Patrick has observed to the like form of Words was Moses himself confin'd as often as the Ark moved and rested in the Wilderness Numb 10.35 36. When the Ark set forward Moses said rise up O Lord and let thine Enemies be scattered and let them that hate thee flee before thee and when the Ark rested he said return O Lord to the many thousands of Israel and by the same divine Institution the Jewish People were obliged to a set form of Words in praying to God and praising his Name when they offer'd their first Fruits Deut. 26.5 6 7 8 9 10. Thou shalt speak and say before the Lord thy God a Syrian ready to perish was my Father and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there with a few and became there a Nation great mighty and populous and the Egyptians evil entreated us and afflicted us and laid upon us hard Bondage and when we cried unto the Lord God of our Fathers the Lord heard our Voice and looked on our Affliction and our Labour and our Oppression and the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty Hand and out stretched arm and with great terribleness and with Signs and with Wonders and he hath brought us unto this Place and hath given us this Land even a Land that floweth with Milk and Honey and now behold I have brought the first Fruits of the Land which thou O Lord hast given me The like Form of Words were they obliged to use in the Offering of their Tythes Deut. 26.13 14 15. Thou shall say before the Lord thy God I have brought away the hallowed things out of my House and also have given them unto the Levite and unto the Stranger to the Fatherless and to the Widow according to all thy Commandments which thou hast commanded I have not transgressed thy Commandments neither have I forgotten them I have not eaten thereof in my Mourning neither have I taken ought thereof for any unclean use nor given ought thereof for the
in the Holy Scripture for their continual Observation as Psal 116.15 Precious in the Sight of the Lord is the Death of the Saints and 't is the Days of their Death and Martyrdom and not of their Birth which we Commemorate not their first Days in which they were Born into the World but the last Days in which they were Born into an happy Eternity and on these Days we do not only Bless God for those eminent Vertues and Graces which Shone in them but also we desire him to enable us to follow their good Examples that being compassed about with so great a Cloud of Witnesses we may run with Patience the Race that is set before us looking unto Jesus their Captain General who with them has endured the Cross and receiv'd a Crown in Heaven and by this means we do what we can to perpetuate their Memory on Earth as God expects we should Psal 112.6 The Righteous shall be had in everlasting Remembrance And this the Primitive Christians began by first keeping the Day of these Saints Martyrdom at the very Place where they suffer'd and this after Ages follow'd by Celebrating it in all other Places where Christianity was professed and I doubt not but it will be continued in all future Ages even unto the end of the World among all Orthodox Christians CHAP. III. HAving in the former Chapter detected the Sophistry and Fallaciousness of John Bunyans Arguments against Forms of Prayer and shewn how they rather conclude for them and against his Pretences to Pray by the Spirit I shall now proceed to discover the Weakness and Folly of his Answer to that convincing Proof for the Lawfulness of Forms even our Saviour's Command for it Luke 11.2 When ye Pray say our Father c. To this he says p. 80. I cannot think that Christ intended it as a stinted Form of Prayer because he lays it down diversly But how diversly Mat. 6.9 our blessed Lord says After this manner Pray ye Our Father c. the plain import of which is that this ought to be the Pattern by which we shou'd Compose all our Prayers but least his Disciples who had desired their Master to teach them a Form of Prayer as John Baptist had taught his Disciples shou'd think it well enough to have an Eye only to this Pattern in Composing all their Prayers by tho' in the mean time they never made use of this very Form it self therefore in Luke 11.2 our Saviour said unto them When ye Pray say Our Father c. i. e. do not content your selves to Pray after this manner in other Prayers of your own Composing them according to it but also use this very Prayer it self together with your own of the like Nature that putting up your Petitions to Almighty God with a good Heart in Christ's own Words ye may be sure to be heard and let any honest Christian but Read and Compare these two Evangelists together in this Point and I am confident he will acknowledge that Christ must needs intend this Prayer of his should it self be daily used and also the true Standard of all our Devotions and consequently he must needs intend it for a Form or else his Words and Intentions would not agree which is Blasphemy to imagine But out Author answers farther p. 81. We do not find that the Apostles did ever observe this Form as such neither did they admonish others so to do search all their Epistles c. But did not the Apostles do many things which are not written there As St. John says there are also many other things which Jesus did which are not written every one of them in the Gospel Joh. 21.25 For were not all the Apostles Baptized And yet we do not Read in the New Testament of the Baptism of any one of them so the Apostles might and without doubt did make use of the Lords Prayer tho' there be no mention of it in their Epistles otherwise how were they Faithful in keeping Christs Commandments themselves this being one of them When ye Pray say Our Father c. and this doubtless they taught others to use also or else they were not Faithful in executing Christs Commission who at the delivery thereof speaks thus Mat. 28.19.20 Go ye therefore and Proselyte all Nations Baptizing them in the Name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have Commanded you and this being one thing that Christ had Commanded them when ye Pray say Our Father c. we cannot suppose that they fail'd to teach others to observe this also as well as Baptism or any other Gospel Duty But after all his trifling Answers to this invincible Objection Jo. Bunyan confesseth p. 81. That Christ by these Words Our Father which art in Heaven doth instruct his People what Rules they should observe in their Prayers to God And if it is a Rule for all our Prayers is not this as great a Confinement of the Spirit as the limiting of it to this or any other Form of sound Words This Author p. 75. and those that made the Directory tho' they are Enemies to all Forms of Prayer and therefore abolished our excellent Liturgy yet lay down certain Rules which we must observe in Praying to Almighty God which is indeed to do that thing themselves which they condemn in us and call a Restraining of the Spirit for to dictate to the Spirit the Heads of Prayer which he must insist upon and leave him at liberty only in the choice of Words is every whit as much if not more a restraining of the Spirit than only to appoint the Words and leave him at liberty in the choice of the Sense the Matter of Prayer being more considerable than Words and the Sense more valuable than Language If therefore the Spirit must be left free why do they themselves confine him in imposing on him the Heads of his Prayer As if he needed help for Invention as our * See his excellent Book p. 686. Royal Martyr observed tho' not for expression or as if Matter did not as much stint and obstruct the Spirit as if it were cloathed in and confined to fit Words so slight and easy is the Leger-de-main which will serve to delude the Vulgar And from hence any one may well conclude that these Men instead of being inspired with the Spirit of God are possessed with the Spirit of Pride and Singularity what else is the meaning of their taking away the Book of Common Prayer and yet establishing a Directory in its room which is as much a restraining of the Spirit as the other What else is the meaning of that Passage in the entrance of the Directory p. 5 Let all enter the Assembly not irreverently but in a grave and seemly manner taking their Seats or Places without Adoration or Bowing themselves towards one Place or other But that because when we enter the Church the Place of
and I doubt the Persecution of the Hand would soon follow if it lay in these Mens Power this way to hurt us and perhaps they might think it meritorious and that they should do God good Service in destroying us as the mad Jews did when they killed Christ's Disciples Joh. 16.2 This is certain that the Anabaptists and other Dissenters who now cry out so much of Persecution have proved themselves desperate Persecutors as often as they have had Opportunities to shew it witness their Ejecting Decimating and Sequestrating their Imprisoning Banishing and Beheading so many of the Loyal party in Cromwell 's Days who by these Mens advice and assistance acted all those Villanies upon his faithful fellow Subjects and imbrued his Hands in his gracious Sovereign's innocent Blood in the shedding whereof all the Sectaries concurred but especially the Anabaptists who some of them sat as his Judges and condemned him 〈◊〉 * See the Life of King Charles the First p. 55. interrupted him in his last Devotions and offer'd Affronts to him in his dying Moments and Agonies not suffering him to Pray or Dye in quiet without disturbing his Charitable Soul with unusual rudeness and injuries witness their Rebellion likewise against King James the Second under the Conduct of the Duke of Monmouth a considerable part of whose Commanders Officers and Soldiers were Anabaptists and this resistance of their rightful Sovereigns tho' contrary to Rom. 13. and the practice of all the Primitive Christians yet these Men Justify Defend and Canonize such for Saints and Martyrs as died in it and were executed for it as may be seen in a Rhiming Pamphlet of Benjamin Keach's entituled * See distressed Sion relieved p. 25 26 27. c. where some that were Rebels to two if not 3 Kings are named as Saints and Martyrs Distressed Sion releived or the Garment of Praise for the Spirit of Heaviness wherein are to be found diverse instances of such Army Saints and Fighting Martyrs tho' I dare say the first the Christian Church ever heard of since the Foundation of it all the Martyrs in Queen Mary's Days and under the Ten Persecutions being Strangers to Carnal Weapons and accustomed only to Spiritual ones even Prayers and Tears thinking the other unlawful to be used against their Sovereign or for Christ's sake whose Kingdom is not of this World nor are his Servants to fight for him as himself expresly affirms Joh. 18.36 So contrary to the Gospel and the holy Christian Martyrs is these pretended Protestants Practice and so is that passage in the solemn League and Covenant the Presbyterian Idol to which they would have all Hands lifted up and all Knees to bow we shall in like manner without respect of Persons endeavour the extirpation of Popery and Prelacy that is Church Government by Archbishops Bishops their Chancellours and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch Deacons and all other Ecclesiastical Officers depending on that Hierarchy we shall also with all Faithfulness endeavour the discovery of all such as have been or shall be Malignants c. by hindring the Reformation of Religion c. or making any Parties c. amongst the People contrary to this League and Covenant that they be brought to publick Tryal and receive condign Punishment as the degree of their Offence shall require or deserve by which Clauses they are bound to destroy our Church Root and Branch and all others too that shall help us or hinder them in this reforming Work which any one would think could not be done without a bloody Persecution unless therefore John Bunyan and his Party renounce the solemn League and Covenant and their other Persecuting Oaths and Books and also all their violent and cruel Practises in this and other Countries let them not for shame complain of Persecution who have been and are themselves the great Accusers and grand Persecutors of their Brethren CHAP. V. OUR Author I suppose being sensible of the small success his railing against the Common Prayer may have to withdraw any rational Persons love from it or to raise his hatred thereof bethinks himself of better and stronger Arguments against it and endeavours to perswade the World that the holy Scriptures are on his side and do in several places manifestly condemn it which indeed would effectually do his Business if he could but prove this vainglorious Assertion but how well that is done we come next to examine for p. 35 36. Jo. Bunyan says The Common Prayer Book is a meer humane Invention and Institution which God is so far from owning of that he expresly forbids it with any other such like and that by manifold Sayings in his most holy and blessed Word and one of the Texts he quotes is Prov. 21.9 It is better to dwell in the corner of the House top than with a brawling Woman in a wide House which perhaps is a mistake of the Printer being nothing at all to his purpose but all the other Texts he produces being altogether as Impertinent and this a second Edition of the Discourse I am tempted to think this is no errour of the Press but what the Ignorant Author might imagine a good Proof of the unlawfulness of Forms of Prayer and as good Proof indeed it is as those that follow which he there inserts as Mark 7.7 8. In vain do they worship me teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of Men for laying aside the Commandment of God ye hold the Tradition of Men as the washing of Pots and Cups and many other such like things ye do where 't is plain our Saviour condemn'd the Hypocritical Scribes and Pharasees for preferring their vain Tradations of which they had a great many and particularly the Corban mentioned ver 11. before the Commandment of God i. e. they forbad Children to help their Parents when they were in want if they had either rashly made a Vow never to do it or had devoted their Substance to pious uses contrary to the Fifth Commandment which requires Children to relieve their Parents when they need it that being one way of honouring them and thus those Hypocritical Scribes and Pharasees were very curious in cleansing their Pots and Cups lest themselves should be polluted with any Legal uncleanness but yet they notoriously neglected those great Moral Duties which were plainly Commanded and also signified by them even the cleansing their Hearts and Lives from the filthiness of Sin as is evident from ver 20 21 22 23. and Luke 11.39 And the Lord said unto him Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the Cup and Platter but your inward part is full of Ravening and Wickedness But how does the Jewish Corban and their superstitious Washing of Pots and Cups conclude against the use of the Common Prayer Book Do we equal or prefer it to the Bible as the Pharisees did these things to the Commandments of God And what Commandment do we break in the use of the Common Prayer Book as they did
of an extraordinary and miraculous Nature as the Gift of Healing diverse kinds of Tongues working Miracles and the Faith there mentioned among them was not such as is ordinary and saving even to believe that Jesus Christ is the true Messias and Saviour of the World but it was a Faith of an extraordinary and miraculous Nature even to believe that God would enable them to Work the Miracle they were about to perform before the People for the Apostles never attempted to work a Miracle till they had this extraordidinary Faith wrought in them first by some Divine impulse from the Spirit which assured them that they should certainly perform the Miracle they undertook for had the Apostles at any time failed in such attempts and set about a Miracle which they were not able to work it would have exposed them mightily to the World and given a great Blow to the Christian Religion and made them and it to be looked on as an Imposture and therefore they had always first a strong and infallible Impulse upon their Minds which St. Paul calls also Faith to assure them they could and should be able to work the Miracle before ever they attempted to do it but this and the other Gifts he there reckons up were not ordinary and saving which every good Christian may now hope for but they were extraordinary and miraculous as is farther evident from 1 Cor. 12.11 But all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit dividing to every Man severally as he will i. e. no one Person had all these miraculous Gifts before mentioned but they were variously distributed among them one had this another had that another a third and so on and they all ceased in that Age which cannot be said of the saving Gifts and Graces of the Spirit where he that has one in truth has certainly all of them as he that truely has saving Faith has also Hope and Charity Patience and Meekness in some measure they being all knit together as so many Links in the same Chain that there can be no Separation made between them and these shall never cease and the not understanding and considering this is the main Cause I doubt that many in this Age expect and pretend to those extraordinary and miraculous Gifts of the Spirit which are long since ceased as St. Paul declares they should 1 Cor. 13.8.13 Charity never faileth but whether there be Prophecies they shall fail whether there be Tongues they shall cease whether there be Knowledge it shall vanish away and now abideth Faith Hope Charity these three but the greatest of these is Charity But little or nothing of this is to be found in all Jo. Bunyan's Book which I have here Answered as I believe any one will find that does not think his Labour lost to read it The CONCLVSION AND thus having with his own Weapons Vanquish'd this Anabaptistical Goliah that is Armed Cap-a-pee with Brass I shall close all with this short Address to the Armies of our Israel That they would every one of them get a Common Prayer Book that is able to use it and think himself Naked and Vnarmed without it as a Soldier does that is without his Sword and that they would not only have their Common Prayer Books about them but also make use of them in their daily Devotions and not only use them but put them also in Practise by their daily Conversation in living a Godly Righteous and Sober Life as they are therein taught to do without this tho' our Prayers are never so good and we make never so many of them they will signifie nothing they will do us no more Service than the Ark of God did the Israelites when they relyed on it only for their Deliverance and Preservation and did not take care to walk worthy of the Divine Presence which resided therein and dwelt among them 1 Sam. 4.3 Let us fetch the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us that when he cometh among us it may save us out of the Hand of our Enemies Thus they thought and earnestly expected but were soon convinced of the contrary by the overthrow of their Army and the taking of the Ark it self and carrying it in Triumph into the Philistines Camp ver 10 11. And thus has it fared with our Common Prayer Book when we too much rested in it and made use of it with Formality Lukewarmness and Indifferency and not with a suitable Zealand Devotion it was twice thrown out of the Church and taken from us and carried Captive by our Adversaries of Geneva and Rome who tho' they seem to stand at a distance and defie one another yet they both agree in this to Hate our Common Prayer Book and to do what they can to destroy it and nothing but our walking unworthy of it nothing but the Sins of our Priests and the Iniquity of our People can give them once more their desired Success against it wherefore let all the Members of our Orthodox Church shew their Soundness and Sincerity by something else than the bare use of the Common Prayer in their respective Families by something else than Drinking numerous Healths to the Prosperity of both for I must needs say such numerous Healths as these are one of the Diseases she at present labours under and there is no hopes of a Cure till all her Sons grow wise unto Sobriety till they all shew themselves sincere Christians and sound Protestants by something else than bare Names and meer outward Professions even by living Godly Righteous and Sober Lives as our Common Prayer Book teaches us to Pray every Day in its general Confession and we are bound to Practice in our daily Conversation in short our leading reformed Lives and our Walking as well as Praying according to the Common Prayer Book is the best the only way to Preserve it and the Reformed Religion among us FINIS